Place:East Cowes, Isle of Wight, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

East Cowes is a small town on the Isle of Wight. The parish of East Cowes was created in 1894 from part of the ancient parish of Whippingham. At the same time it became an Urban District. East Cowes Urban District was abolished in 1933, becoming part of Cowes, the urban district on the other side of the River Medina. The parish was later re-established and East Cowes today (2012) is one of the civil parishes on the Isle of Wight.

The largest estate in East Cowes is Osborne House, the summer home of Queen Victoria who died there in 1901.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Osborne House.

Research Tips

• Victoria County History of Hampshire, volume 5, chapter on Whippingham.
• Victoria County History of Hampshire has an outline map of the parishes of East Medina (which included Whippingham).
• The Isle of Wight Family History Society has a website with a lot of information.
• GENUKI has a list of archive holders in Hampshire including the Hampshire Record Office, various museums in Portsmouth and Southhampton, the Isle of Wight Record Office and Archives.
• The Hampshire Online Parish Clerk project has a large collection of transcriptions from Parish Registers across Hampshire.
• A listing of all the Registration Districts in England and Wales since their introduction in 1837 together with tables listing the parishes that were part of each district and the time period covered, along with detailed notes on changes of parish name, mergers, etc. Do respect the copyright on this material.
• The three-storey City Museum in Winchester covers the Iron Age and Roman periods, the Middle Ages, and the Victorian period.
• Volumes in The Victoria County History Series are available for Hampshire through British History Online. There are three volumes and the county is covered by parishes within the old divisions of "hundreds".

A collection of maps on the A Vision of Britain through Time website illustrating the English county of Hampshire over the period 1832-1932 (the last two are expandible):

• The Hundreds of Hampshire, a map from HMSO Boundary Commissioners, dated 1832
• Hampshire showing parishes in their Rural Districts as of 1900, a map from the Ordnance Survey
• Hampshire showing parishes in their Rural Districts after the alterations of 1932, a map from the Ordnance Survey

• A group of maps of the post-1974 municipal districts or boroughs of Hampshire on Wikipedia Commons